Ohio cuts foodstamp benefits

This isn’t sitting too well with the Obama lovers, and they are pointing fingers that this is happening because they voted for him. Hundreds of thousands of foodstamp recipients in Ohio are going to see $50 cut from their benefits come January. According to the Toledo Blade, this will affect 869,000 households, and it would save $520 million.

Here is how this is explained:

Because of the way the federal government calculates utility expenses for people receiving the benefit, a mild winter nationwide last year, and a lower price for natural gas, many families could experience a significant cut in aid, those familiar with the program say.

What’s called the “standard utility allowance” — the amount deducted from a person’s income when the state determines his or her eligibility for the food stamp program — will decrease by $166 for 2013, translating to about $50 less per household in food assistance. State Job and Family Services officials tried to appeal the change to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the food stamp program, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but the USDA denied the request.

This has stirred up anger among the recipients, who took to Facebook to whine.

A commenter named Ra Williams wrote, “Got to like the timing huh? LESS then a week after the election.” Another commenter, Nick Danielson, wrote that the cut seems “conveniently occurring after the election.”

Currently, close to a million impoverished Ohioans collect federal assistance in the form of food stamps. If the thrust of last week’s election was, as many have argued, a welfare quid-pro-quo, it’s clear these people represented a big portion of the buckeye state’s pro-Obama vote.

These people thought the freebies would last forever. Wait until their welfare is cut.

“This is a federal issue,” Joel Potts, executive director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Directors’ Association, said according to the Blade. “It is what it is. They have a formula. … We just think it is going to be really hard on families and individuals. They will see significantly less money starting in January.”

Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, told the Blade the organization is “really worried” about how the cut will impact families, especially those who might lose assistance all together. Several other organizations that provide supplemental food as well were reported as saying this cut would bring a strain on their system and the families they serve.

Maybe it would be a good idea for those “Obama” supporters to tell him to lower taxes so businesses could hire, and then the recipients could work to support themselves and their families, not expect a handout. Looks like the well is starting to run dry.

Also it appears that the FDA delayed releasing the new report on how many are now on foodstamps by 9 days. The new figure though is now 47.1 million, an all time high, but the monthly increase of 420,947 from July was the biggest monthly increase in one year. One can see why a reported surge in foodstamps ahead of the elections is something the USDA, and the administration may not have been too keen on disclosing.